Soccer

Chelsea move unlikely with Enzo Fernández set to stay at Benfica

Roger Schmidt, Benfica’s coach, confirmed that he sent the Argentine to the stands for ‘punishment’. “He is our player and now he can focus on Benfica again” he added.

HUGO DELGADOEFE

The Enzo Fernández move to Chelsea seems to be off the table with the player left out of the Benfica side for the top flight game at the Estadio da Luz on Friday night.

Enzo Fernández

“It is clear that what Enzo Fernández did was not right, that is why he was not in the team”, revealed Roger Schmidt, Benfica’s coach, as a justification for the absence of the Argentine midfielder, who was forced to watch the game from the stands by surprise in the match against Portimonense as Schmidt dropped the World Cup winner. The Las Águilas coach alluded to the fact that Enzo returned to training after traveling without permission to Buenos Aires to spend New Year’s Eve.

“I am happy to announce that starting tomorrow I will see Enzo training. He is our player, we need him... now Enzo can focus on Benfica and football again”, confirmed the German coach, who seems to herald a restart of the relationship between both parties, after a series of meetings took place where it seemed likely that the player was destined to move to Chelsea. During the win over Portimonense, the former River Plate player uploaded an Instagram photo of the stadium with an emoticon with hearts from his seat in the Estadio Da Luz grandstand.

Enzo Fernández was one of the star players at the recent 2022 Qatar World Cup winning the Best Young Player of the tournament award as his Argentina side lifted their third World Cup trophy and as things stand appears unlikely that he will be joining the likes of new Chelsea acquisitions: David Datro Fofana, Benoit Badiashile and Andrey Santos.

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